


IX

by tcourtois



Series: Fork in the road [8]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 09:06:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3723202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tcourtois/pseuds/tcourtois





	IX

I.

Borussia Dortmund star embroiled in love triangle with team mate’s wife

 

Marco

 

I threw the paper down onto the coffee table in front of Marcel, Robin and Emma before pacing around them.

“I want honesty. If you have said something, even accidentally, to the press I want you to own up now. I won’t be as hurt as I will be if I find out later on that it was you.”

“I can’t believe you think I would do that to you.” Marcel was first to speak. He looked at Emma who shook her head. I didn’t think that Emma would betray Ava, but what did I really know about her? Not much. I knew that she was Ava’s boss and one of her oldest friends, but that didn’t account for her character, and she could have something to gain from selling the story.

Marcel stood, and then without so much as a second glance back at me, he left the room.

Emma apologised, insisted that she didn’t know who was leaking the information and then scuttled out of the room after him.

“Robin?”

“I haven’t said a thing. Lara didn’t even know until Ava told her the whole story the other day. It’s not exactly something that we shout about. I haven’t walked around the hotel complex talking about it. Ava is the one that asked for this fake relationship thing. I think you need to point the finger at her. If you need me, you know who I’ll be with.”

~

Mats

“How did I never realise that he was in love with her?”

Jonas didn’t respond, his mouth full of cereal. He’d calmed somewhat from his outburst the other day but he was still mad at me. I couldn’t really blame him for that.

Now he was staying with me to ward off Cathy.

She called often, and she would leave me voice messages asking to meet up. I told her that it was complicated and that I hadn’t decided what to do yet.

She did, however, know that Ava had filed for divorce and that had placated her because she thought that she was getting what she wanted, even if it weren’t straight away.

I was thankful for the space that she was giving me.

“All the club events that I took her to…I actively encouraged her to dress up and schmooze with everyone. I guess she did a good job.” I squinted down at the morning paper as I read the article. Whoever the anonymous source was, they claimed to have been close enough to Marco to hear him confess his feelings.

“You can’t blame him for it though can you? Anyone with eyes is going to find her attractive, and unfortunately for you, he got close enough to experience her personality to top it off.” He barely looked up at me as he spoke, casually scrolling through his phone as he slurped some milk off of his spoon.

“No I can’t blame him for loving her. I still remember the day I realised that I loved her.”

~

7 years earlier

She dropped her books in front of me, pages flipping open, spines bending and she cursed under her breath.

I rushed over to her and helped her to scoop them back up into her arms, making sure that they were arranged in such a way that they didn’t block her vision. I kept hold of the last book, a very heavy encyclopaedia.

“Can I carry this for you?”

She looked up at me before, standing and brushing herself off from where she had knelt to retrieve her possessions.

“I’m fine.” She shrugged, and then tried to wrestle the large book out of my arms.

“That wasn’t really a question. I’m going to do it any way.”

She blushed, hiding her face behind her curtain of mousey brown hair, making me a little sad that I couldn’t see her eyes properly anymore.

“Why are you even talking to me?” she asked.

I had a promising sporting career ahead of me, but I had never been the type to think that I was better than anyone else. It was a little late in the term for making new friends but I couldn’t help but be drawn to her.

“I talk to everyone.” I shrugged.

“Well you shouldn’t talk to me. I know who your girlfriend is, and I know that she’s the jealous type so if you could just pass me my book back so that I can continue my existence without you that would be great.”

And with that she succeeded to wrestle the book from me even though she was a tiny girl. She must only have been about 5”7 at most. I found her attempt quite adorable.

“We’re kind of on the rocks…” I ran a hand through my hair, sighing.

Then I realised what I had just said, and immediately wanted to retract it.

“Please don’t tell anyone that I said that.”

She laughed as she walked past me, bumping her shoulder into mine before she looked back at me, shrugged and said “who would I tell?”

~

Ava

“This is so fucked up Marco. Who would do this to us? This is not what I had in mind when I said that I wanted to push Mats’ buttons. He could use this against me in the divorce if he wanted to.” I raised a hand to my forehead and massaged my temples, gritting my teeth. I had never been so frustrated before.

“It’s my fault. I should have kept my feelings to myself. I shouldn’t have told anyone, but instead I’ve told three people. I can’t even trust my best friends anymore and this is ripping our group apart. Marcel is fuming that I suspect him of this, but who else is there? Only him, Robin and my mother know. I don’t think it’s my mother back home spreading all of this.”

I was sad that their friendship was being torn apart over all of this, then I realised that Marco had just said.

“Do you mean that this is the truth?” I bit my lip, hard.

He was silent for a moment.

“I guess I just confessed, didn’t I? No chance to back track now.”

“That’s not a real answer Marco, please.” I reached out to him and lay my hand on his arm, just above his wrist.

“Yes, what is written there is the truth. I am in love with you, and I have been since I first laid eyes on you, the first time Mats brought you to training I was drawn to you. Your smile, your laugh and your persona all drew me in. I wanted to know more about you and so I had Caro invite you and Mats over often so that I could spend time with you and so that I could get to know you and figure out if my feelings were real. I think the day I realised that it was more than just a crush was the day that I broke up with her. It wasn’t fair for me to lead her on while I was having such strong feelings for someone else. I felt like a failure and a terrible boyfriend and I thought that I would just be better off on my own until I realised that you really were unattainable. I thought after that I would probably just get over you.” I watched him as he spoke animatedly.

“I never realised. How do you feel about me now?” I asked him as I stood and moved to stand right in front of him. I took both of his hands and pulled him from his seat until he was standing too, he didn’t really resist.

“Nothing has changed for me.”

In one swift motion I leant up on my tiptoes, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my face into the crook. I just clung to him. Slowly and if he was unsure if he should or not, he wrapped his arms around me and held me, and we rocked from side to side slightly.

“I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you.”

II.

Mats

“Please sign here.”

I signed the form without hesitation. They were letting me transfer Cathy, and she was in a stable condition although she hadn’t yet woken up. She’d have screamed at me if she had.

Jonas was begrudgingly doing a very good job of covering for me, even somehow setting his phone location to Paris and tweeting about how wonderful the sights were. I owed him so much for what he did for me.

“She has a friend in the waiting room.”

“What?” My heart stopped.

Her parents had told me that they weren’t able to make it to Paris as Cathy’s grandmother had recently suffered a stroke and they were her only carers, so I wondered who it could be.

“She said that they are good friends and that they had plans to meet up here.”

“Oh right, what’s her name? I’m sure that I’ve just forgotten about the plans.” As I responded I reached into Cathy’s bag and retrieved her phone. It was time for me to comb through her messages to get some answers. I had put off doing so for far too long when I had more than enough opportunity to hopefully get a secret of hers that I could use as a bargaining tool to keep mine safe.

“It’s a Miss Lietzener. Can I send her in?” The name didn’t ring any bells with me but then again Cathy never mentioned her friends, I didn’t actually know she had any. She was able to drop any plans that she had within seconds when I called saying I wanted to see her, so they couldn’t mean that much to her.

The name wasn’t one that I recognised from school either, but I hadn’t been that interested in Cathy then even though we were actually dating, I was too busy worrying about my future and being pressurised to succeed by my entire family.

A few moments later I was joined in the room by a cold looking brunette. She was attractive but not in a girl next door sort of way. She was a lot like Cathy in that way.

“Hi, I’m Mats.” I stood for her and held out my hand to her, expecting her to be polite to me and shake it as it was the first time we had ever met.

“Yeah I know who you are. I’m Lara.” She brushed past my hand and straight over to Cathy, prompting me to remember that I had the phone. I tucked it into the pocket of my jeans so that Lara wouldn’t see that I had been snooping, or about to.

“She’s stable. We’re moving her to Dortmund today. She’s going to get the best care possible.”

“I hope you’re putting your hand into your pocket for that. It’s the least that you can do after stringing her along for years.” She gave me a stern look.

“Um, no disrespect but who are you? She has never mentioned you, and how did you know that she was here?”

“She has mentioned me to you, but not by name. I’m sure.” She circled around Cathy’s bed like a vulture, and then she studied me closely from across the room.

Then I imagined her with beady little bird eyes and scared myself with my own thought.

“That doesn’t answer either question.”

“Just call me when she wakes up. I really need to speak with her.” She took a card out of her wallet and slapped it down in front of me on Cathy’s bedside cabinet. “Unfortunately she has only told me snippets, and snippets do not make a full story.”

I lifted the card then to read it.

Lara Lietzener

Journalist

Many things made sense then. Of course Cathy had mentioned her to me, she had threatened me with her contacts with the press, and said that she knew someone who would be very interested in her story.

I had just met the person very interested in the story.

I had just met the person who would write the expose that would finish me.

~

Ava

“He is acting strangely.” I looked away from my phone and put it down on the breakfast counter.

“I think it’s you that’s acting strange and you look pale. Have you been eating properly? What about that Kale I gave you?” Emma fussed around me as usual.

“Firstly, I am eating just fine thank you and secondly, I am not a rabbit so I will not eat grass.” I rolled my eyes at her. “Mats and Jonas seem to be cramming a lot of things into their days together.”

“I’m thinking about giving Robert a second chance.”

I nearly choked on the disgusting wheat grass smoothie that she had me drinking. It was almost as bad as the time she had dragged me along to her yoga class. Since the fainting incident she had been way more concerned with my health.

“You’re what? After he rolled around with that blonde bitch?” I shook my head in disbelief.

“I still love him. It’s difficult to leave him behind. We’ve been together for a long time you know?” She looked a little down cast, her eyes never leaving the floor.

“Are you sure that you want to stay with him?”

I reached for her hand across the table and held it for a moment, hoping that she would find the gesture comforting somehow.

“I don’t have much choice Ava.”

“Is it the divorce? Is he trying to take everything? That bastard. He is the one that cheated he should be left with nothing. He shouldn’t even get to keep the car that he shagged her in repeatedly and-” as I babbled she cut me off.

“He could leave me with nothing. If I stay with him and he does it again, then I have a better standing in court to get my fair share. Unfortunately I married a smart man with a lot of sense and lawyer friends.”

I sighed, leaning back in my chair.

“Unless you meet a millionaire. Then you wouldn’t need anything from him.”

She laughed at that, somewhere between a giggle and a hiccup.

“Where can we find me a millionaire?”

I continued to laugh with her before waving a finger in the air and diving into my bag to retrieve the flyer that I tossed into their earlier.

As I slid the flyer in front of her on the table I mumbled. “How about a footballer, that’s close enough right?”

“You hate cocaine parties!”

Emma was hesitant as she read the text.

“Which is exactly why I want my best friend to be my plus one. Marco always invites me to these and I always politely decline but my husband is away and I literally never leave the house when he isn’t around. Emma, this could be fun and you can forget about your bastard husband for a few hours at least. Please.” I gave her my best pleading expression and bat my eyelashes at her.

“Ugh, fine fine! I’m not so sure that footballers are my thing though Ava. That’s your thing!”

Sticking my tongue out at her I snatched the flyer back off of the table and jumped off of the stool I had been sat on.

“I will have the cab pick you up at nine. Please Emma, no pre-drinking.”

I kissed her lightly on each of her cheeks.

“I will have a bottle of vodka stashed in my bag and we’ll split it in the cab.”


End file.
